Church of England agrees to have women bishops within seven years

The Church of England took a historic step towards consecrating its first women bishops yesterday despite warnings that the move would precipitate fresh divisions and dissension.

Thirteen years after voting to ordain women priests, the Church's General Synod voted decisively to begin the process to remove the legal obstacles that prevent them becoming bishops.

After an often heated four-hour debate in a packed debating chamber in York University, all three Houses of the Synod - bishops, clergy and laity - passed the motion by comfortable majorities.

But in an indication that a battle is still ahead, the House of Laity only narrowly achieved the two-thirds majority that will be required finally to approve the legislation in about seven years' time.

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While a series of amendments designed to delay the process were defeated, resistance to the reform was stronger than many had predicted. The mood is expected to be fiercer and the voting tighter when a newly elected Synod debates the details of the legislation next February.

Opponents argued yesterday that despite decades of discussion, there was still insufficient consensus to change centuries of tradition, and many would feel forced out of a Church of which they had been life-long members.

More than 400 clergy have already left over women priests, costing the Church £26 million in hardship payments.

But supporters of the reform passionately voiced their frustration that what they regard as an injustice should be allowed to remain for a minute longer than necessary. The announcement of the final voting figures was greeted with sustained applause and an audible sigh of relief from pro-women campaigners.

Opening the debate, the Bishop of Southwark, the Rt Rev Tom Butler, strongly resisted calls by traditionalists for further delay, saying that it was time for the Church to make up its mind.

He said that there had now been women bishops in parts of the worldwide Anglican Church for 17 years and it could not be claimed that the Church of England was acting "hastily or precipitately." He said that the Church should not be deterred by its relations with Roman Catholics.

''The Church of England, catholic and reformed, has before acted prophetically for the wider Church - the vernacular liturgy, married clergy, have all been pioneered by our Church and have proved to be a blessing to other communions also," he said. "The same I believe will be true of women's orders which we are pioneering."

But the Bishop of Chichester, the Rt Rev John Hind urged Synod to reject the motion as "premature and a dangerous precedent." He said that the theological debate about whether women should be bishops had not yet taken place in the Church, and forcing the issue would raise tensions.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said, however, that further theological exploration could go ahead in parallel with the legislative process.

A number of speakers argued that a Church that discriminated against women in a way that would be considered intolerable by society at large would not be taken seriously by the outside world.

The Rev Jenny Thomas from Southwark demanded immediate action and said: "How can we speak to the nation about justice when we can't organise ourselves in a just way."

One of the few women to oppose the reform, however, was Valerie Bryden from Durham, who said that there had not been sufficient theological work done and women bishops would do "irreversible damage" to the Church.

After a division by Houses on the main motion, the voting figures for the House of Bishops were 41 for and six against, for the House of Clergy 167 for and 46 against and for the House of Laity 159 for and 75 against.